Alan Cooklin has worked as a family therapist, and adult, and child and adolescent psychiatrist for over 50years.  Within the NHS He developed the ‘Marlborough Family Service’ and later the multi-family Kidstime Workshops for the children of parents with mental illness and their families, In 2012 he  established the charity The Kidstime Foundation, (now Our Time). He was co- founder and first Director of the Institute of Family Therapy, London.

Gill Gorell Barnes has been a family therapist, researcher, author and  teacher for over 45 years,  working within the NHS at the Tavistock Clinic London, and later  alongside the UK Family Courts .  Parental mental illness has been an ongoing part of  her work in both settings as well as in her own family life in childhood. She was co- founder, and first training director of the Institute of Family Therapy, London.